Andriy Parubiy: “The national security law does not just reform the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the whole security sector in line with NATO and EU standards; it is also a crucial step towards Ukraine’s NATO integration.”

Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government recommends Ukrainian Parliament adopt draft law "On amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine" (as to voluntary unification of territorial communities) as a basis

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Morning plenary meeting is over

(&nbspInformation Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat&nbsp)

The Chairperson
of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy opened the session. MPs delivered
their statements, announcements, and proposals.

The body of
today’s work:

Bill No.0160
on EIB’s 20-year loan

The Verkhovna
Rada of Ukraine has adopted a draft bill No. 0160 constituting a law of Ukraine
to ratify a financial Agreement (Project “The Higher Education of Ukraine”)
between Ukraine and the European Investment Bank, signed in Brussels on
December 19, 2016 amounting to EUR 120 m, with another EUR 10 m to be granted
by the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environmental Partnership Fund (‘E5P’).
Ukraine is supposed to be a co-financier on the project, with the direct
borrower being the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, administered at large by the
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The ultimate beneficiaries on the
project are to be state-owned higher education establishments meeting the
project eligibility criteria. The interest rate is to be either flat rate or floating
rate; the loan repayment period is set at twenty years, having five years as
the principal grace period. Terms of repayment: annuity payments or by fixed
amount payments, consisting of the principal and interest.

Bill No.0167 on
the PEM Convention

The Verkhovna
Rada of Ukraine has adopted a draft bill No.0167 on the accession to the
Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin (PEM
Convention). The Convention signed in 2012 allows for the application of
diagonal cumulation between the EU, EFTA States, Turkey, the countries which
signed the Barcelona Declaration, the Western Balkans and the Faroe Islands. It
is based on a network of Free Trade Agreements having identical origin
protocols. Those origin protocols are being replaced by a reference to the
Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin (PEM
Convention). A single Convention will facilitate the on-going revision of the
PEM rules of origin aiming at modernizing and simplifying them.

The 23 Contracting Parties to the PEM Convention are:

the EU,

the EFTA States (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and
Liechtenstein),

the Faroe Islands,

the participants in the Barcelona Process
(Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine (This
designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine
and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States
on this issue.), Syria, Tunisia and Turkey),

the participants in the EU's Stabilisation and
Association Process (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo (This designation is
without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244
and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.),

the Republic of Moldova; with Georgia in progress.

The PEM
Convention will ultimately replace the network of about 60 bilateral protocols
on rules of origin in force in the pan-Euro-Med zone with a single legal
instrument. The main objective of the PEM Convention is to allow for a more
effective management of the system of pan-Euro-Med cumulation of origin by
enabling the Contracting Parties to better react to rapidly changing economic
realities. A single legal instrument may indeed be amended more easily than a
complex network of protocols and should pave the way towards the long expected
adaptation of the pan-Euro-Med rules of origin to the current market
conditions.
The PEM Convention will also better integrate the participants in the European
Union's Stabilisation and Association Process (the EU's SAP) into the
Pan-Euro-Med system of cumulation of origin, by creating a single zone in which
diagonal cumulation can apply. This step offers new trade opportunities. In
particular, it allows for the application of diagonal cumulation involving at
the same time the EU, EFTA States and participants in the EU's SAP.

Background

The pan-European cumulation
system was created in 1997 on the basis of the EEA agreement
(1994) between the EC, the EFTA countries, the CEEC (Central Eastern European
Countries) and the Baltic States. It was then widened to Slovenia and to
industrial products originating in Turkey (1999).The system was also enlarged
to the Faroe Islands.

In 2005,
it was enlarged to the participants in the Barcelona Process resulting in the
creation of a pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation system of origin.

The initiative
of creating a single PEM Convention, as an instrument promoting regional
integration, was endorsed by the Euro-Mediterranean Trade Ministers during
their meeting in Lisbon on 21 October 2007. It includes the above mentioned
partners and the Western Balkans participating in the EU's Stabilisation and
Association Process.

Then MPs strapped
to their work over a bill No.1581d on housing and communal services teeming
with amendments. The bill was stood over.